Suburban Dicks. What a title! And written by the co-creator of Deadpool? Yes please!
A gas station attendant is murdered in West Windsor, New Jersey and the police seem to be bungling the investigation before the yellow crime scene tape has even been strung around the scene. Enter a disgraced journalist looking for a big story to achieve redemption and an again-pregnant mother of 4 who gave up a potential career as an FBI profiler to raise her family and spare the fragile ego of her ungrateful and less intelligent husband. These former acquaintances team up and obsessively start digging – literally – to get to the bottom of what turns out to be a decades long conspiracy to cover up a racially motivated murder. The unlikely heroes, these amateur Suburban Dicks, unearth the evidence needed to shine a light on the racist dicks in their midst, bringing long awaited justice to one family as well as the entire diverse community of this small Jersey township that has been mistreated for too long.
Suburban Dicks is entertaining and contains a decent amount of sarcasm and humor, but I expected more outright hilarity from the co-creator of Deadpool. I was hoping it would be laugh out loud, side splitting funny from start to finish. And while Suburban Dicks has its share of humorous moments, they’re more subtle and scattered throughout. However, to me this book is about way more than how much it makes you laugh. Fabian Nicieza focuses on developing a solid plot that explores racism through intriguing characters, some you root for and others you want to drop kick in the head. The author has a story to tell that seems ripped from the headlines from the past year filled with social injustice and systemic racism. It highlights the lengths to which the establishment will go to hold down people of other races, and that it takes everyone banding together to root it out and force change. That is what I will take away from this book. Not at all what I expected from a book called Suburban Dicks, though in hindsight it’s now clear the title is intended to have double meaning.
All told, Suburban Dicks is a story about redemption, overcoming adversity, the power of community, how any single determined person can make a difference and how much racism blows. Mix in a bit of humor and absurdity and this book is a worthy debut entry into the thriller genre. My hope is that it will be read by a wide audience who looks beyond the laughs to appreciate, internalize and reflect on the social commentary contained within. And I hope we get a sequel because I want to see more of these amateur sleuths!
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